The invention relates to a marking device for automatically identifying a sheet, in particular a side edge of a sheet.
In order to finish printed sheets, such as by cutting them, folding them, and so forth, it is necessary to know which side of a sheet was aligned before the sheet was fed to the printing machine.
From the prior art, it has become known to align sheets laterally to the lefthand or righthand sides by a lateral pulling device after the sheets have been singly separated from a sheet pile and before they are fed to a printing machine. A lateral pulling device of this general type is shown, for example, in the published German Patent Documents DE 42 42 731 A1 (which corresponds to U.S. Pat. No. 5,419,256) and DE 195 01 798 A1 (which corresponds to U.S. Pat. No. 5,820,123).
It is an object of the invention to provide a marking device for side edges of sheets in a rotary printing machine, wherein laterally aligned sheets are automatically identified.
With the foregoing and other objects in view, there is provided, in accordance with the invention, a device for laterally aligning a sheet in a sheet-processing machine, comprising a marking device for automatically identifying a sheet side edge.
In accordance with another feature of the invention, the marking device includes a stamp pad.
In accordance with a further feature of the invention, the stamp pad is connected to an ink reservoir.
In accordance with an added feature of the invention, the marking device includes an ink ribbon.
In accordance with an additional feature of the invention, the aligning device includes a drivable winding device provided for the ink ribbon.
In accordance with yet another feature of the invention, the ink ribbon is stored in a replaceable cassette.
In accordance with yet a further feature of the invention, the marking device is disposed on a line in common alignment with the lateral stop.
In accordance with a concomitant feature of the invention, the marking device itself serves as a lateral stop.
Thus, it is advantageous for the invention that the printed sheet and the sheet pile, respectively, for subsequent further processing, are automatically given an identification or mark which permits a determination to be made as to which side of a sheet was aligned laterally. This identification avoids the necessity for performing so-called test cuts during the finishing of the print, which would otherwise be required in order to determine the so-called xe2x80x9cgood sidexe2x80x9d.
The measure according to the invention therefore saves material and time.
In an advantageous feature of the invention, provision is made for assigning a device for providing an identification or mark for the sheet directly to a lateral stop.
The device for providing the identification or mark may be, for example, a stamp pad, or an ink or inking ribbon.
In a beneficial feature, the stamp pad is equipped with an ink reservoir, in order to supply the stamp pad with ink even over a relatively long time period.
The ink ribbon is advantageously provided with a transporting and winding device.
Configuring the ink reservoir as an ink cartridge permits simple maintenance.
Forming the ink ribbon as a cassette permits a simple replacement of a used cassette by a new one.
Other features which are considered as characteristic for the invention are set forth in the appended claims.
Although the invention is illustrated and described herein as embodied in a marking device for sheet side edges in a rotary printing machine, it is nevertheless not intended to be limited to the details shown, since various modifications and structural changes may be made therein without departing from the spirit of the invention and within the scope and range of equivalents of the claims.